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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Wait! It’s not mercury in vaccines! It’s mercury from coal burning power plants that causes autism! I’m so confused…

Yet another dubious study has been making the rounds of mercury militia websites and discussion forums. The study is being played up and touted by certain very excitable and scientifically not-too-bright militia members and woo-meisters like Mike Adams as some sort of vindication of the scientifically discredited hypothesis that mercury in vaccines somehow causes autism. […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

The mercury militia isn’t going to like this very much…

…because Paul Offit’s written a book: AUTISM’S FALSE PROPHETS Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure Paul Offit, MD Columbia University Press September 2008 Genre: Non-Fiction/Medicine Format: Hardcover AUTISM’S FALSE PROPHETS will show the reader the incredible history of how greedy lawyers, doctors, and unknowing parents have helped prevent the search for […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Thoughts on Dr. Rashid Buttar and the failure of state medical boards

One of the most contentious and difficult aspects of trying to improve medical care in this country is enforcing a minimal “standard of care.” Optimally, this standard of care should be based on science- and evidence-based medicine and act swiftly when a practitioner practices medicine that doesn’t meet even a minimal requirement for scientific studies […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Kathleen Seidel and her opponents

Over the weekend there was a very good article in the Concord Monitor about Kathleen Seidel and her legal battle with Clifford Shoemaker, whose intrusive “fishing expedition” subpoena recently drew condemnation even from prominent antivaccination activists such as David Kirby and Dan Olmsted and was ultimately quashed with the possibility of sanctions. What this article […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Rashid Buttar’s going down: The North Carolina Board of Medical Examiners finally acts

Ah, a lazy Saturday morning. So here I am in the late morning, perusing my e-mail (including e-mail notifications of blog posts) after purposely not having checked them at all last night (and, in fact, even having gone to see a movie for the first time in many months), and what should a reader send […]